Book Description
This celebrated volume begins when Nin is about to publish her first book and ends when she leaves Paris for New York. Edited and with a Preface by Gunther tuhlmann; Index.
Customer Reviews:
Should be read simultaneously..........2007-09-09
...with "Tropic of Cancer." For newbies, read the synopsis of Anais Nin and Henry Miller at "wikipedia." Then start reading Volume 1 of Anais Nin's diaries (1931 - 1934). After a while, maybe 30 - 40 pages you will want to take a break. So, pick up "Tropic of Cancer" and read the first couple of chapters. Anais had Henry read her journals; Anais and Henry helped each other with each others works. The preface to "Tropic of Cancer" was written by Anais Nin (at least it was signed by her; legend has it that Henry actually wrote it). "Tropic of Cancer" was published (and immediately banned in the United States) in 1934. (By the way, off topic, Henry Miller reminds me a lot of Hunter S. Thompson, at least "Tropic of Cancer" and "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.")
A womans heart ...laid out boldly in words for all to see. .......2005-12-31
ANAIS has been someone who has carried me through some tough times in the past...I read her at twenty...and twenty-three and twenty-six. Her troubles were my own and we were kin. She is meant to be read by anyone who loves life...in it's full fleshy sometimes heart rending reality. She writes with the open-heart of a poet, and leaves the reader feeling more than fed. READ ANAIS NIN!
A great read.......2004-10-08
I recomend reading Anais Nin's diary. The book is such poetic prose. Some sentences really took my breath away, the way she can captivate something so beautiful and human in simple words. Since it is a diary, its main focus is her life, but its not selfish, infact she mentions herself very little. The main focus is Henry (Miller) and June, his wife. When Ananis Nin falls inlove with someone, so does the reader. Her descriptive skills gave me goosebumps, you really can see it in your minds eye, hear the music or feel the softness of skin. I highly recomend this to anyone thinking about reading this book, you will come away with a slice of life from 1930's France.
Wonderfully delicate and erotic.......2004-07-30
This is one of the most profound works of literature I have ever read. Nin leads you directly into her life, the nature of the people around her, her feelings and internal conflicts. She writes delicately and powerfully and womanly. Everyone should have a chance to read this.
Worth reading.......2004-04-11
A bit long and occasionally dense, but overall, a worthwhile and insightful glimpse into the life of a remarkable, thoughtful writer in 1930s France.
Book Description
Celebrating the centennial of cartoonist Milton Caniff's birth, IDW Publishing will publish a six-book series, collecting the entirety of Caniff's groundbreaking newspaper adventure strip "Terry and the Pirates." The Sunday pages will be reproduced in their original color, alongside the daily black-and-white strips. Volume One contains more than 800 consecutive strips, from the series' beginning in October 1934 through the end of 1936.
Customer Reviews:
A genuine treat from beginning to end .......2007-10-06
Milton Caniff was one of the most popular and influential newspaper comic strip artists and storytellers of his day. Perhaps his most important and successful strip was "Terry and the Pirates" which began in 1934 and finally concluded some twelve years later. IDW Publishing has published the first volume of this outstanding series which includes more than 800 consecutive comic strips (black-and-white during the weekdays and in color for the Sunday papers) beginning with its 1934 debut and continuing through to the end of 1936 and comprising all of the strips for the series first two years. A whole new generation of readers will be introduced to young Terry lee, his adult pal Pat Ryn, their sidekick Connie, and an unforgettable array of brigands and bad guys including Captain Judas, Blaze, Burma, and the one-and-only Dragon Lady. Very strongly recommended for personal and community library collections, this debut "Terry and the Pirates" collection of high adventure on the China Seas is a genuine treat from beginning to end and will leave the reader looking eagerly toward the arrival of Volume 2!
Low definition scans for the dailies.......2007-09-26
Fantastic stuff, beautiful thick volume, but the worst low-definition b/w print I ever seen in years! What a pity. I hope things come better in the next issues.
Begining of a great reprint series.......2007-09-17
This is an excellent first volume to this comprehensive reprinting of the classic "Terry and the Pirates" series. I have wanted to read this series, but missed out on the previous reprint series done by NBM several years back (being a poor student at the time, I could not afford the multiple expensive volumes).
I hope the success of this series, along with the current reprint series on Peanuts, Dick Tracy, Popeye, Gasoline Alley, and Dennis the Menace will bode well for the upcoming Little Orphan Annie and Pogo series, and will lead to better reprints of other classic series.
A Big Disappointment.......2007-09-17
I'm a big Caniff's fan. I bought this book and I won't send it back. But I will surely not buy the following volumes.
There's no question that Milton Caniff was a true complete genius. His strip Terry and the Pirates is undoubtly one of the most outstanding artistic achievements in the literary and graphic arts of the XXth century.
But this edition just doesn't cut it.
Scanning and printing haven't been done with enough definition: The line art is unsharp and unworthy of such a smooth and inspired inker as Caniff.
The strips are reprinted too small. Especially the format of the Sunday Pages is ridiculously tiny. And graphically weird: 3 thin strips to a page, historically conceivable, but esthetically inappropriate. For a book which wants to be the definitive edition, it is pretty shocking.
The worst, yet: The art has been scanned very darkly, to the contrary of the NBM-Flying Buttress edition. The gray screens come out much too strong: You get Caniff's blacks, but his lights are gone! This printing is maybe 10% more accurate than the NBM-Flying Buttress scans, but the black & white balance ist at least 30% off... And offputing!
The extra-bonus materials are sparse and reproduced much too small. The introduction articles are totally superficial and uninteresting. The object in itself is much too big and to heavy to have an enjoyable and relaxed reading session.
Oh, please! Bring us back Denis Kitchen, Peter Poplaski, Shel Dorf and their Kitchen Sink re-editions!
In the meanwhile, try to find the (although not perfect either, but much more enjoyable) NBM-Flying Buttress edition.
IDW Continues to Raise the Bar.......2007-09-12
I'm a longtime comic strip aficionado, and a collector of reprint volumes. The popularity of Fantagraphics' The Complete Peanuts has brought a resurgence to this genre that, for me, has been no less than thrilling. First of these new reprints came Walt and Skeezix, a gorgeous reprinting of the delightful Gasoline Alley. Close on its heels came IDW's Dick Tracy reprints, featuring not only a great strip, but production values that were better than I'd seen in any other reprint book -- up till that point.
This book tops them all. How the strip itself compares to Gasoline Alley or Dick Tracy is a matter for debate (many would consider Terry superior to both, many would argue for the others -- I love them all), but the quality of this book isn't. It is a huge, solid, gorgeous book, just a joy to behold, a pleasure to hold and read. The strips might as well be brand new, they're so sharp; the coloring of the Sundays is sharp and faithful to the originals; and the filler material is first rate. It is clear that the folks at IDW who are putting out these volumes are serious comic strip fans, who want nothing but the best for the strips that they love.
Thank you, IDW. I can't wait to see what other treats the "Library of American Comics" will be bringing us.
Book Description
Beginning with Nin's arrival in New York, this volume is filled with the stories of her analytical patients. There is a shift in emphasis also as Nin becomes aware of the inevitable choice facing the artist in the modern world. "Sensitive and frank...[Nin's] diary is a dialogue between flesh and spirit" (Newsweek). Edited and with a Preface by Gunther Stuhlmann; Index.
Customer Reviews:
A coherent extension of the first volume.......2004-01-01
Anais Nin began a letter to her father, on the ship that carried her, her mother and brothers, away from him, away from Europe and to New York City. She was 11 at the time. The letter was never sent (her mother did not think it appropriate), but instead developed into a diary that would become legendary by the time she reached her late 20s. Henry Miller helped feed the legend by stating that, once published, Anais Nin's diary would take its place beside the great literary revelations of the century. Upon publication in the 1960s, many critics, and audiences alike, felt that the acclaim was justified. Though original plans called for the publication of only one volume, demand was so great that seven volumes in all would be eventually be published; then, of course, the "unexpurgated" versions would be published in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
In the first volume of the diary, we meet Anais Nin living outside of Paris with her husband, banker Hugh Guiler. She has just published her study of DH Lawrence and is about to meet Henry Miller and his fascinating and dramatic wife, June. All characters from the previous volume factor into this second installment, but many new people are introduced. Gonzalo, a Peruvian Marxist, and his wife Helba, are the most interesting new characters. Famous Freudian analyst Otto Rank is also depicted. Anais works with Rank in New York; she struggles to understand whether she is meant to be an analyst or a writer. Yes, in what strikes me as an odd occurence, Anais Nin - with no formal training - is allowed to take on patients.
Of the first two volumes, I'd have to say that this is my favorite. There is more movement, and with World War II as a backdrop, there is more social conscience on display. "Politics, all of them," Anais writes in an astute observation that, sadly, is still true 70 years later, "seemed rotten to the core and all based on economics, not humanitarianism." Indeed, in this volume Anais seems more aware of the world around her and less preoccupied with herself, well, a little less so. But, as with all other volumes in this series of diaries, and just about all of Anais Nin's literature, the reader is wise to look more for poetic truth than literal reality. What I mean is, the diaries of Anais Nin are most likely not verbatim transcriptions of the manuscript versions (the difference between this original series and the unexpurgated versions pretty much proves this point). They are something closer to being stylized, masterfully edited "memory books" and persona self-creation. But it's an entertaining, romantic, and often beautiful persona.
Andrew Parodi
Anais is always searching.......2002-12-21
This book has so much wisdom. I find myself reading it very slowly to stop and really think about what she has to say. This volume of her diary is more disconnected than the one prior, but the insight is much more profound.
Customer Reviews:
The Man Behind the Work.......2007-09-03
For those who have the privilege of knowing him as a friend, this book
provides additional personal glimpses into the life of the man and his
passionate friendships, as well as revealing the nature of his work as
understood by his colleagues and associates in the fields of agriculture,
poetry, and the art of the essay. For those who have never met him, nor
perhaps ever heard of him, this gem of a book will give them some of
the essence of what he and his work stand for, and will make them want to
seek out the primary texts for themselves. An entertaining and well-
meant tribute to a man who has not only contributed greatly to American
letters, but has turned the ordinary toward the holy (as it was meant
to be) once again.
Book Description
Harry Pierpont and John Dillinger were die-hard and deadly partners who made national headlines with their daring bank hold-ups and gun battles -- and they had a lot of laughs while they were at it. They were known as the Dillinger Gang but at its heart was "Handsome Harry" Pierpont -- tough, fearless, intelligent, and sworn to live by no law but his own. Presented as his intimate "confessions," Harry's story takes us from his teenage days as a small-time crook to his fateful meeting with the equally young Dillinger to the pinnacle of his notoriety, and to his final hours in the penitentiary death house.
Crafted in James Carlos Blake's signature style of fast-paced violence, sizzling sex, and darkly raucous humor,
Handsome Harry re-creates a thrilling chapter from the chronicles of American crime.
Customer Reviews:
Handsome Harry.......2006-08-12
I found the book absolutely fascinating.
It started me scurrying round the internet to Lori Hyde's wonderful sites on John Dillinger and Pierpont. I got all the films on Dillinger. Read the FBI reports from Melvin Purvis which are now in the public domain and on the net. Read all the books available about the Dillinger gang. Particularly recommeneded is Ellen Poulsen's Don't Call us Molls - all about the women of the Dillinger gang.
There is a picture there of Mary Kinder (Pierpont's girlfriend) by Pierpont's open casket after he was executed.
I am a singer songwriter and I made the title track of my next album St Peter and John Dillinger. Because of course, as the other reviewers point out - its hard to imagine a world where the likes of Harry Pierpont could be integrated as a useful member of the community. That is fascinating. What a paradox that God should plant such anti social people amongst us to do us harm - and then take none of the blame on himself.
Harry is not untalented, good looking, personable - but in this book he is also a vicious man, uncontrollable and flawed beyond even the desire for redemption.
I'm not sure it is totally accurate. When you read the actual histories of the Dillinger gang - most of them are fairly hapless and more than a bit pathetic. They spent much of their ill gotten gains on decent dentistry - something far beyond the purse of working folk in those days. The women had low self esteem and figured that a gangster was the only sort of chap they were worthy of.
Pierpont himself was executed for shooting a sheriff, and whilst shooting him didn't do the sheriff much good, it was his panicking comrade Mackley who killed the lawman by coshing him afterwards.
One time I taught in an inner city school and some of the kids were involved in a robbery where an old shop keeper got killed. It was evil enough what they did, but the real problem was that the kids were too dim to realise the consequences of their actions. I'm willing to bet the real Harry Pierpont was like that, rather than the Faustian character in Blakes excellent book.
This book is great entertainment though - great fun!!!
What a writer!
The best story about Handsome Harry. .......2006-07-10
Mr. Blake has brought to life the "Forgotten Bank Robber". This novel is fiction but is probably as close to reality as the story of Harry Pierpont, could be told. The auhtor's research is commendable, especially, with so little available historical data to draw from. Mr. Blake has literally re-created Harry Pierpont into a very interesting and readable story. Harry Pierpont would be proud of this novel!
Not compelling.......2006-06-14
I'm sorry but I just couldn't even finish the book. It reminds me of erotica I used to write when I was a teenager. The story isn't compelling, the characters are transparent and everything is highly boring. And I'm not a prude. I love sex drugs and rock and roll...and bank robbers make for a great story. But this isn't one of them.
Good Book, But Be Warned.......2005-02-09
For a long time friends of mine recommended books by James Carlos Blake, but this is the first book by him that I got around to reading. It was well written, in a straightforward and fast paced style. I was somewhat disturbed by the content of the book. It was not the fact that it contained a great deal of explicit sex and violence, as such, that bothered me (although potential readers should be aware that it does contain quite graphic passages). The narrator of the book is "Handsome Harry" Pierpoint, a member of the John Dillinger bank robbery gang of the Depression era. The book does a very good job of capturing the attitudes and way of thinking and behaving of a violent sociopath who cares for nothing except his own immediate gratification. (One minor flaw: would half-educated high school dropouts really know enough to make jokes about Socrates and Oedipus?) The realistic depiction of the mind of a criminal is what bothered me about the book. Once I started reading it, I went right through it and I enjoyed reading it. But afterwards, it left me with a bad feeling. Was reading the thoughts of an essentially two-bit criminal worth two hours of my life and ten dollars of my money? I don't know. It is this doubt that leads me to give the book four stars instead of five. I hope that the author uses his excellent writing ability on a more worthy subject.
The Dillinger Gang's Top Guy.......2004-09-23
Harry, a small time crook, met his fate in prison in the person of John Dillinger. From there on, he was in 'high cotton' back in the thirties when robbing banks and killing people who got in their way was commonplace.
They formed a 'gang' who hit places all across the land, Florida, Midwest, Arizona, even Knoxville, TN. They escaped across the Gay Street bridge, which is still standing after being closed for a few years for restructuring. At least, we have some claim to fame when it comes to crime.
The characters in this book are real, and most of the events are documented in old newspapers. The relevant historical information is vague, contradictory, or in error (as is all of the old microfilm from the past). A lot of it was made up to sell papers. No one living today really knows what was said or how these criminals felt inside.
Shakespeare is quoted in his play, Richard III, "conscience is but a word which cowards use ....to keep the strong in awe. Our strong arms are our conscience, swords our law." That is okay in a play written in Shakespeare's time, but certainly not a rule to go by in America of the '30s, '40s, or now. Conscience keeps us from hurting other people intentionally.
You run out of everything when you run out of luck. Well, Handsome Harry's luck ended with a smile, as he is led into the death chamber and strapped into the electric chair. The rest of the gang are already gone to their reward for being who and what they were; people think they know everything about these gangsters because they know some of the facts. These are not human beings worthy of respect. They violated the law, not just once but over and over, thinking they were omnipotent. No one is. His grin was wasted under that hood, as the reporters and warders present for the execution could care less.
These 'intimate confessions' are a figment of one's imagination. I'd say he was scared as a rabbit trapped in a hole. Handsome is as handsome does, I always heard.
Amazon.com
First, a bit of history: The seventh Earl of Lucan disappeared on November 7, 1974, leaving behind the battered body of his children's nanny and a beaten wife. Widely covered in the press, his sensational story has had a surprisingly long half-life, and the speculation about his whereabouts has never quite died out. In this book, Muriel Spark toys with several provocative issues arising out of the case: identity, class, blood ("it is not purifying, it is sticky"), and the dynamics of psychiatry ("most of the money wasted on psychoanalysis goes on time spent unraveling the lies of the patient").
Aiding and Abetting opens sometime late in the 20th century, when an Englishman in his 60s walks into the Paris practice of famed Bavarian psychiatrist Dr Hildegard Wolf and announces that he is the missing Lord Lucan. Yet Hildegrad is already treating one self-confessed Lord Lucan. And what's more, both patients seem to have dirt on her--for isn't she really Beate Pappenheim, a notorious fraud who used her menstrual blood to fake her stigmata? Fearing for her safety, Hildegard flees to London, where her path inevitably crosses that of two British Lucan hunters.
Aiding and Abetting contains more than its share of broad farce and bitter irony. But it remains a strange, slight affair, its unspoken tenet being that the Lucan case still preys on the communal mind of the British public, its details (like the perpetrator's penchant for smoked salmon and lamb chops) indelibly printed there. For anyone under 30, that's a difficult argument to swallow. As one wise character puts it: "Few people today would take Lucan and his pretensions seriously, as they rather tended to do in the 70s." Times have changed indeed--and perhaps that's Spark's point after all, that the "psychological paralysis" of the not-quite-swinging '70s is long gone. --Alan Stewart
Book Description
In
Aiding and Abetting, the doyenne of literary satire has written a wickedly amusing and subversive novel around the true-crime case of one of England’s most notorious uppercrust scoundrels and the “aiders and abetters” who kept him on the loose.
When Lord Lucan walks into psychiatrist Hildegard Wolf’s Paris office, there is one problem: she already has a patient who says he’s Lucan, the fugitive murderer who bludgeoned his children’s nanny in a botched attempt to kill his wife. As Dr. Wolf sets about deciding which of her patients, if either, is the real Lucan, she finds herself in a fierce battle of wills and an exciting chase across Europe. For someone is deceiving someone, and it may be the good doctor, who, despite her unorthodox therapeutic method (she talks mainly about her own life), has a sinister past, too.
Exhibiting Muriel Spark’s boundless imagination and biting wit,
Aiding and Abetting is a brisk, clever, and deliciously entertaining tale by one of Britain’s greatest living novelists.
Download Description
One of the greatest living British novelists is back with her most wickedly amusing and most subversive novel in years, a savagely witty tale of murder and escape, based on the notorious real-life case of Lord Lucan
Customer Reviews:
A social comedy.......2005-12-02
Summary: Not a thriller, but a social comedy that skewers the English class system while examining the face of evil.
On the evening of November 7, 1974, the seventh Earl of Lucan beat his children's young nanny to death in the darkened basement of his London townhouse. He attacked and severely injured his estranged wife. Lucan then walked out into the night and disappeared. A warrant was issued for his arrest, but he was never found. In 1999 Lucan was officially declared dead by the British government.
For almost 30 years, the press has speculated that the thuggish aristocrat was aided and abetted in his flight from justice by many of his upper class, old-school cronies. These people apparently couldn't abide the thought of one of their own - familiarly known as "Lucky" Lucan - standing trial for the death of a mere servant.
The Lucan case has inspired a number of true-crime books. Now, in her latest novel, Aiding and Abetting, literary veteran Muriel Spark has taken the facts of the case and "spun" them into a bizarre social comedy of hidden identities, dark agendas and darker souls.
The year is 1999. The location Paris. Dr. Hildegarde Wolfe, renowned psychiatrist to the rich and neurotic, has a dilemma. Not one, but two of her patients claim to be the missing Lord Lucan. She believes they are working together, that one of them is the genuine fugitive and the other is a double hired to throw pursuers off the trail.
One - or perhaps both - of the Lucans is blackmailing the doctor, for she herself is an imposter and fugitive. Twenty years earlier, Dr. Wolfe was known as Beate Pappenheim, a false stigmatic and faith healer who embezzled money from her adherents. (Much to her surprise, she'd also managed to miraculously heal a number of them.)
Meanwhile, back in London, a couple with past connections to the Lucan case decide to play amateur detective in order to find the missing earl - not to bring him to justice, as in an Agatha Christie mystery, but to interview him for a book they want to write. Lucan is, after all, a celebrity in the O.J. Simpson mold.
Although not a thriller, this slender book has enough plot twists, eccentric characters and dry wit to mollify the more sophisticated readers of that genre. The characters are put through the Hitchcockian paces of plot and counter-plot, chase and pursuit - with the plotters, chasers and pursued all changing places throughout the book. Finally, in an off-stage climax worthy of Evelyn Waugh, poetically just desserts are served to the worst offenders.
Beneath all this black humor, Spark explores with a deft hand the various faces of evil, as she weaves themes of sin and purification, blood and guilt, flight and punishment into the story.
A side note: This reviewer has a personal interest in the Lucan case. On November 7, 1974, I was staying in a bed-and-breakfast just around the block from the scene of the crime. I remember in the following days walking past the earl's townhouse, where a single bobby outside the front door kept an eye on the hordes of photographers and reporters loitering on the sidewalks.
None of those representatives of either the police or the press ever cracked "The Case of the Missing Murderous Earl," but Ms. Spark offers perhaps the most satisfying solution to the mystery.
For people who know how to deal.......2004-08-20
A remarkably entertaining read from the author of "A Far Cry from Kensington", which incidentally, is the first Muriel Spark novel in my collection.
Not only for true crime afficionados, the story serves to fill in the blanks in the life of the 7th Earl of Lucan, who disappeared in November 1974, after mistakenly murdering the nanny, and attempting to murder his estranged wife.
With a little help from his friends, he has managed to elude capture, and stay one step ahead of the law. He is declared officially dead in 1999.
Enter Dr. Hildegard Wolf, roving German "psychiatrist", who charges huge fees to talk mainly about herself. She soon has two patients claiming to be Lord Lucan, and she suspects that the pair are in fact partners, and up to no good.
Sure enough, her chequered and spotted past comes to light, and unable to report her patients to the authorities, she deals with the situation in her own way, as she is not without friends herself.
Enter Lacey, daughter of one of Lucan's friends, and Dr. Joseph Murray, another Lucan acquaintance, who set off on a search mission, which ends up as a quest of mutual self discovery.
With more people studying the habits of the original Lord, the game begins afresh, and the world becomes a little smaller for the two "Lucans", as their aristocratic shield begins to thin and fade.
Muriel Spark throws together a group of unlikeable characters, and concocts a gripping story with a most fitting if slightly abrupt ending.
Amanda Richards, August 20, 2004
Light, brisk satire mocking yesteryear's British aristocracy.......2004-08-01
The high-brow farce of "Aiding and Abetting" revolves around two drawn-from-real-life criminals who both have "blood on their hands." The first, Lord "Lucky" Lucan, who intended to murder his wife but mistakenly killed his children's nanny, disappeared in 1974 and hasn't been seen since. The second is Beate Pappenheim/Hildegard Wolf, a fraudulent stigmatic and faith healer who bamboozled her followers before escaping with a fortune.
But, to complicate matters even further, Spark adds a third impostor: a former butler who looks so much like Lucan ("They were not indistinquishable, but they might have been brothers.") that the two work in league to thwart either's capture. The comedy results when Spark brings together her three characters: a fraud who reenters the "real" world by assuming a new identity, a murderer who flees to the underworld by assuming a fake identity, and a butler who straddles both worlds by assuming the identity of a killer pretending not to be a killer. Each of the three becomes dependent on the other two for survival, and an uneasy detente results because the exposure of any of them would likely result in the exposure of all three.
Since authorities suspected that Lucan's escape was enabled by his aristocratic peers, the author adds further irony depicting an upper class who protects a murderer because it's the "proper" thing to do: "They seemed to have been faithful in the class-conscious sense." No doubt it's hard for modern (especially young) readers to imagine that, only thirty years ago, upper-class snobbishness extended even to assisting a homicidal maniac. British aristocrats "are not the same people as [they] were a quarter of a century ago . . . Since Lucan's day, snobs have been greatly emarginated." Spark is ridiculing both British aristocracy and their hankering for the "good old days"; it is this theme in particular that recalls the early satires of Evelyn Waugh.
The novel's hasty ending likewise reminds the reader of Waugh's "A Handful of Dust"; it is somewhat unsatisfying, not the least because the perspective shifts unexpectedly during the final pages. Still, although a slim, brisk read (barely a novella, in fact), "Aiding and Abetting" hits many of its upper-crust targets while simultaneously mocking the meaning of identity.
repetitive and boring.......2003-12-05
this comes from someone who knew nothing of the legend of lord lucan.. but still from the opening of the story i was intrigued by it.. however the book is constantly repeating the few details that it shares with us on the crime and lord lucan's disapperance over and over again. I felt the book to be very incomplete.. and the key word here really is repeatitive.. It's just a bore! Pass it! (the last two sentences being the only two in need of capitalization)
Intriguing Novella.......2003-02-11
Muriel Spark's novels have always been fabulous and Aiding and Abetting is certainly no exception. It is a fictional account of an actual murder suspect from Great Britain in the early 70s. Lord Lucan was accused of murdering his children's nanny and the attempted murder of his wife, but escaped capture. Although there are those that suspect he then killed himself, there are others who believe he has been living in some form of exile, with the help of many of his wealthy friends, the aiders and abettors the novel's title refers to. In this novel, we meet two "Lord Lucans", both seeking treatment in the present day from Dr. Hildegard Wolf, a psychiatrist practicing in France. She too is escaping some deceptions of her past (although they are no where near as heinous as murder). She initally believes they are both frauds, but things begin to change her mind. The novel also follows the paths of two people who believe they are closing in on Lord Lucan. But are they? This is an intriguing novella that tells an interesting story. Spark's writing is fabulous, as usual. Enjoy.
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- An Elucidation
- Really Getting To Know Gertrude Stein's Writings!
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Gertrude Stein: The Language That Rises : 1923-1934
Ulla E. Dydo , and
Gertrude Stein
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A Stein Reader
ASIN: 0810119196 |
Book Description
Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose, as most everyone knows, and as we might know The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas or even "Patriarchal Poetry." But Gertrude Stein is far more than her best known words and works, and this monumental study gives us for the first time a finely detailed, deeply felt understanding of both the music and the mechanics of this great modernist master throughout one of her most productive periods. With The Language that Rises, Ulla Dydo, a reader of Stein without equal, makes apt readers of Stein of us all, and shows us why this unduly neglected and famously difficult writer merits our close attention and appreciation.
Taking up all of Stein's works between the publication of "The Making of Americans" and "Lectures in America," Dydo examines the process of their making and remaking as they move from notepad to notebook to manuscript-from an idea to its ultimate refinement as the author's intentions and concerns assert themselves. Though not a biographical study, The Language the Rises sets each text in the context of Stein's daily life and work, showing how the elements of her immediate world enter her writing to be enlarged upon, deleted, transformed, or combined with other elements of reading or remembering. The result is an unprecedented view of the development of Stein's work, word by word, text by text, and over time.
The product of over twenty years of intense examination of Stein's notebooks, manuscripts, and letters, this book is the most extensive and detailed study of Stein's way of writing ever written, and as such, suggests answers to the fundamental questions raised by this author's brilliantly opaque works: what kind of writing was Gertrude Stein writing, and what kind of reading does this writing demand?
Customer Reviews:
two gifts.......2004-09-14
Gertrude Stein is one of the greatest artists of the 20th Century. She has influenced all modern art, literature and theatre. She has often been ignored or set aside as unreadable,unperformable, opaque. Yet when approached with an open mind; the genius is awe inspiring. Ula Dydo, is another gift, someone who has taken the time to sit down and explore, to play in her own scholarly way. Dydo's love of Stein is contagious. She has created an opening that I hope a lot of curious people step into.
An Elucidation.......2004-08-10
Since I first read Three Lives in high school I became fascinated with the writing of Gertrude Stein. During the past three decades I have read all her work. Because she requires so much effort, so much attention and concentration to detail, I have also tried reading as much about her as I could find; none as enlightening, as lovingly researched, as clearly written as Ulla Dydo's The Language That Rises. Hers is truly an "elucidation!"
Really Getting To Know Gertrude Stein's Writings!.......2004-06-09
What better way to get to know Gertrude Stein than to be guided through some of her key writings by one of the world's best Stein scholars, Ulla Dydo! It's not "Stein For Dummies," but it certainly is a very readable book which analyzes Stein's texts bringing in information from her life as appropriate to get a clearer picture of not only what she wrote, but why and how she wrote what she wrote. A must-have book for anyone who is really serious about reading and understanding Stein, as well as a great introduction to Stein's other works if the only thing you've ventured to read is THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ALICE B. TOKLAS, which is also, by the way, addressed in this book.
Book Description
The multiple Harvey and Eisner Awards series collecting one of America's true national treasures, Krazy Kat.
This is the fifth in a series reprinting George Herriman's early 20th Century comic strip masterpiece. Most of these strips have not seen print since originally running in Hearst newspapers over 70 years ago. Each volume is edited by the San Francisco Cartoon Art Museum's Bill Blackbeard. Krazy & Ignatz 1933-1934 will be a hot-baked brickbat of a volume, adance with nearly two full years of the Sunday Krazy Kat (Herriman did not use color until 1935), snug between multiple pages of Herriman extras, not the least of which include an introduction by Blackbeard, a new "Debaffler" page, and a stunning layout front and back and throughout by the inimitable Chris Ware!
Krazy Kat is a love story, focusing on the relationships of its three main characters. Krazy Kat adored Ignatz Mouse. Ignatz Mouse just tolerated Krazy Kat, except for recurrent onsets of targeting tumescence, which found expression in the fast delivery of bricks to Krazy's cranium. Offisa Pup loved Krazy and sought to protect "her" (Herriman always maintained that Krazy was gender-less) by throwing Ignatz in jail. Each of the characters was ignorant of the others' true motivations, and this simple structure allowed Herriman to build entire worlds of meaning into the actions, building thematic depth and sweeping his readers up by the looping verbal rhythms of Krazy & Co.'s unique dialogue.
Customer Reviews:
Kaveat..........2006-02-11
I have nothing to add to the praise for Herriman's marvelous creation, which you can read about in the comments below. Anything I'd say to that effect would only echo what has already been written.
Alas, the 1933-1934 volume in the Fantagraphics release has some problems. It has nothing to do with a dropoff in the humor of the strip itself -- there was none, as "Krazy Kat" never experienced a noticeable decline in quality -- but with the print quality of the Sunday strips as they are presented here. Although I'm sure Fantagraphics did their best when they went through page after page of ancient newsprint drawn from who knows how many private collections to find the best possible specimens, the sad fact is that the majority of strips reprinted in this collection are blurry and shaky. This makes it very difficult to fully appreciate Herriman's skills with pen and brush, and worst of all, makes the subtle facial expressions and body language of the characters much harder to interpret. A small handful of pages, with sharp outlines and shadings, stand in contrast to the rest.
By all means, you should become acquainted with this wonderful comic strip if you aren't already. But you'd do much better to get the next volume in the series, A Wild Warmth Of Chromatic Gravy. Along with featuring the return of sharp, clear lines, "Gravy" is in full, vibrant color (pre-1935 Sunday strips were all black-and-white) and even includes an insert that features newly unearthed, better-quality scans of a few of this volume's worst offenders. This volume is strictly for Kat kompletists.
George Herriman, Comic Genius........2005-08-23
The Fantagraphic series of Krazy Kat reprints is a fantastic journey back in time.The strange thing is that it could have been written yesterday.Anyone remotely interested in comic strips or cartoons needs to get as many of these volumes as possible.Krazy Kat came to life in his own strip in 1913.The same year Charles Chaplin made his first silent film.As a student of the Chaplin films,the first thing that came to mind was how Herrimans' comic strip reminds you of the work Chaplin did.This was not intentional I'm sure.They were geniuses of their time and in fact,of all time.
Fantagraphics closes the gap.......2005-08-23
George Herriman created Krazy Kat as a "downstairs" strip to his The Family Upstairs. The devine Kat soon had a strip of his/her own, both daily and Sunday.
Hyperion press published the Family Upstairs strips from 1910 - 1911. Eclipse published the early black and white Sunday strips, 1916 - 1924, in volumes which also included the full color Saturday strips from 1922. Now Fantagraphics has published the rest of the black and white Sundays, 1925 - 1934, closing the gap between the last Eclipse book and the first full color Kitchen Sink book, which begins with the 1935 color Sundays.
The daily Krazy Kat strips are much harder to find. Pacific Comics Club has published (almost) complete years 1921 - 1923. Comics Revue monthly has published the dailies beginning in 1931 (currently they are finishing 1933). The Menomonee Falls Gazette published more than half of 1934 and 1935.
Krazy Kat ended when George Herriman died in 1944.
The heppy lend gets closa an closa..........2005-01-05
Well, here we go again. Another sumptuous collection of one of the best comic strips ever published. Fantagraphics has more than fulfilled its pledge to keep the series going with this the 5th volume of Krazy Kat Sunday strips.
This installment, like all previous installments, has amazing bonus material. The first thirty pages include articles about Herriman and Krazy Kat, early pre-Kat Herriman strips (including "Baron Bean", "Mary's Home From College", "The Amours of Marie Anne MacGee", and "Embarassing Moments"), as well as some rarely seen Krazy Kat dailies. Also, the series editor announces that the next volume will be the first KOLOR KRAZY KAT edition. After 1934, the Kat et al appeared in amazing Kolor. So here stand bound the final black and white Krazy Kat Sunday pages.
And as always the book plumps with the justifiably famous Krazy Kat Sunday strips. Some of the strips had to be painstakingly reconstructed from papers that shrunk Herriman's original sized papers to miniscule proportions. All of the reconstructions are listed in the back of the book. Fantagraphics pulled this feat off with much gusto, as anyone can witness in the book.
For the initiates amongst us, the strip's main theme is love. Krazy, a Kat with indeterminate gender, loves Ignatz, a temperamental mouse. The only sign of affection Krazy can extract from Ignatz is a brick solidly and violently tossed at his skull. So, brick equals love to Krazy. Meanwhile, Offisa Pupp loves Krazy (in a rather repressed manner) and has made his mission in life to halt Ignatz's vile tossings. The entire strip revolves around this variation on a theme. Helplessness and hope in the face of seemingly hopeless love seeps out between the ink marks. Isn't it romantic?
Lastly, February 19th, 1933 has to be amongst Herriman's best "silent" strips. Krazy and Offisa Pupp ride a see-saw and Ignatz repeatedly picks up the brick, drops it, picks it up, etc... Be sure to translate the español on the wall separating the parties.
Carry on, Fantagraphics, carry on...
Average customer rating:
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Mary Austin: Song of a Maverick
Esther F. Lanigan
Manufacturer: University of Arizona Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0816517142 |
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- just one caveat
- the eternalness of youth
- If Only My Babysitter Had Looked Like This...
- Some things never change
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Twenty Days with Julian and Little Bunny by Papa (New York Review Books)
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Manufacturer: NYRB Classics
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Binding: Hardcover
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American Bloomsbury: Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau: Their Lives, Their Loves, Their Work
ASIN: 1590170423
Release Date: 2003-05-31 |
Book Description
On July 28, 1851, Nathaniel Hawthorne's wife Sophia and daughters Una and Rose left their house in Western Massachusetts to visit relatives near Boston. Hawthorne and his five-year-old son Julian stayed behind. How father and son got along over the next three weeks is the subject of this tender and funny extract from Hawthorne's notebooks.
"At about six o'clock I looked over the edge of my bed and saw that Julian was awake, peeping sideways at me." Each day starts early and is mostly given over to swimming and skipping stones, berry-picking and subduing armies of thistles. There are lots of questions ("It really does seem as if he has baited me with more questions, references, and observations, than mortal father ought to be expected to endure"), a visit to a Shaker community, domestic crises concerning a pet rabbit, and some poignant moments of loneliness ("I went to bed at about nine and longed for Phoebe"). And one evening Mr. Herman Melville comes by to enjoy a late-night discussion of eternity over cigars.
With an introduction by Paul Auster that paints a beautifully observed, intimate picture of the Hawthornes at home, this little-known, true-life story by a great American writer emerges from obscurity to shine a delightful light upon family life—then and now.
Customer Reviews:
just one caveat.......2005-04-09
Everything positive said about this book is true. But I would add this: Mr. Auster's introduction is excellent until he reaches a point where he starts divulging some of the best points in the diary. So buy the book and go straight to the diary. Then enjoy Auster's wonderful intro. Bravo to NYRB for publishing this as a stand alone book; what a great gift for a new parent!
CS
the eternalness of youth.......2004-07-27
I had previously thought of Nathaniel Hawthorne as serious, stuffy, reclusive - as indeed many contemporaries thought of him. However, _Twenty Days with Julian_ show another side of the man - and the eternal joy and wonder of childhood.
While his wife and daughters were away, Hawthorne spent three weeks alone with his son, Julian. Chronicling their activities, you get a clear sense of the time and of the person Hawthorne was. But what was most pleasant - and surprising - was how similar 4 year old Julian was to children today. A joyful read that would make an excellent Father's Day present.
If Only My Babysitter Had Looked Like This..........2004-01-17
From July 28th until August 16th, 1851, Nathaniel Hawthorne's wife Sophia took their daughters on a visit to her relatives, leaving her husband home to care for their 5 year-old son, Julian. Hawthorne kept a record of his time with the little boy in a journal, calling the episode "Twenty Days with Julian & Little Bunny by Papa". Anyone familiar with Hawthorne's exquisite, almost recondite writing style as exemplified by his novels and short stories will hardly recognize him in the guise of babysitter and chronicler of his jet-propelled kid's activities. Driven nearly to distraction by Julian's nonstop chatter and noisemaking (Hawthorne's wife had recently given birth to baby Rose, and the little boy was constantly being told to keep quiet), Hawthorne nevertheless decides to allow the child the freedom to be as noisy as he likes while the baby is away. This proves to be an exercise in forbearance for poor papa, as Julian proves to have no off switch, making it "impossible to read, write, think, or even sleep (in the daytime) so constant are his appeals..." Over the ensuing three weeks, the two take daily walks to fetch the milk, and to the lake where Julian fishes with furious, single-minded determination and catches absolutely nothing. Hawthorne struggles to figure out how his wife curls the kid's hair, and there are several unfortunate events - a bedwetting accident, a pants-peeing incident, the kid gets stung by a wasp, the pet bunny, Hindlegs, dies and is buried in the garden, much to Julian's amusement. (He hopes a Bunny Tree will spring up, covered all over in bunnies hanging by their ears.) Through it all, Hawthorne, in spite of his befuddlement with the finer points of child care, bears up gracefully, proving himself not only a gentle and loving father, but a genius at capturing the essence of childhood and the joy of witnessing,close at hand, his little boy's joie de vivre.
Some things never change.......2003-07-22
This is abrief book, but full of great writing. It's very interesting to see what has changed in 150 years - the food, the activities, the words, and what hasn't - how little kids behave.
Hawthorne really captures the boundless energy and joy of small children, as well as his own sense of bewilderment as a father.
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The Diary Of Anais Nin, Volume 2 (1934-1939)
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